Birthright
by AshtonJacks
Summary: When Jerry Jacks' girlfriend is found dead in her own bed, many secrets come to light. This intense roller coaster fic features the Cassadines, Jacks, and Spencers in a reworked history that ties these families together in groundbreaking ways. This is wr


Birthright is cowritten by myself and Angela ([**Angelab_me@yahoo.com**][1]) We have 20 chapters of this written but we're doing a rewrite.

Prologue

Port Charles, NY

May 2003

"Ashley?" Jerry Jacks walked into his penthouse and threw his keys onto the table. J&J Jacks was in the middle of a takeover and negotiations had him running late again. Ashley hated it when he was late; she was undoubtedly pouting. When he received no answer from his model girlfriend, he walked into the bedroom. The redhead was splayed face down on the bed and the room had a strange calm about it, as if all the air had been sucked out. Feeling immediately uneasy, Jerry brushed the comforter off his girlfriend's shoulder. "Ash?" He repeated, more uncertainly this time, panic rushing through him. Something was as wrong as it could get! With a deep shuddering breath, Jerry gingerly turned the model onto her back. He rocked back on his heels, unable to tear his eyes away. All he could do was to stare at her in shock, disbelieving the sight before his horrified eyes.

"Oh God." Jerry said in a groan of anguish. The dead model's face was gone; apparently she was the victim of a single gunshot wound to the face. Shaking in fear, revulsion, and horror, Jerry sank to the floor, staring blankly at the scene before him. His glazed eyes focused on the Cassadine medallion dangling from Ashley's fingers. His life as he knew it had reached a swift and irrevocable end.

~~*~~

Monaco

The young woman did one last check in the mirror, straightening her black dress and fluffing her honey blond locks. She could almost hear her Gram's voice in her head. "Jenna first impressions are the most important" She mocked in a cultured voice. If that advice was true, tonight was the most important of her life. Everything needed to be flawless. She felt the cold metal of her agency issued revolver against her thigh, relieved to have that comforting but if reassurance. Not that this night was anything but a typical night in the life of Jenna Jacks debutante/international spy. She'd be a good little debutante and contribute oodles of the Jacks empire to the cause du jour, eat drink and be merry. God she hated these functions!

Jenna breezed out of the elevator, sighing inwardly and cursing her luck. Why had she been the one chosen for this assignment? Instead of going out and shooting villains, she was stuck in a slinky backless dress and thigh highs playing nice nice with international dignitaries and one specific prince who wasn't going to know what hit him. Still, he would never believe that such a nice kid could do what she was going to have to do to him.

~~*~~

"Is there anything else I can get you madam?" Ari asked, pouring his mistress Cassadine a glass of champagne.

"No darling, I think this will be enough." Helena replied as she sat in front of her ornate chessboard, playing against herself. "It was a very good night though darling so please don't go far." Ari stepped away, shaking his head. He knew that meant that she would require his 'services' for endless hours. As the older woman turned her attention back to the chess game, she moved her final piece after some moments of concentration. "That makes check dear and we all know that mother never loses." She toasted before taking a sip of her bubbly.

Chapter 1

Jerry poured himself another vodka on the rocks, fingering the medallion he had taken from Ashley's hands. The police had come and taken the body away but Jerry could still see what had been left of her face and shuddered in disgust and horror. Staring down at the medallion, Jerry kept running his thumb over the initials J M C. He had hoped never to see it again and dreaded having to tell his daughter that the life they had created together was a lie. She wasn't going take this well at all. Jenna had never dealt well with his constant misappropriation of the truth . She certainly wasn't going to like this.

~~*~~

"I hate this." Jenna muttered to herself as she made an unobtrusive beeline towards her latest assignment. She would much rather be having an intimate dinner with her partner and sometimes escort. Lucky was doing the initial surveillance in Port Charles where he had family to use as a cover. She'd be going there to visit her father and uncle once this shindig was over. Making eye contact with her target, Jenna smiled demurely then looked away. He wasn't hard on the eyes, no far from it! Sipping some champagne, she surveyed the crowd and the easy way the prince moved. He had a curious combination of style and grace that intrigued her and drew her to him.

Nikolas Cassadine observed the small groups of the old and nouveau riche as they socialized. Monaco, the home of the idle rich usually held no charm for him. Still, as the Cassadine prince, he was occasionally required to attend these functions, when his uncle could not. Scanning the crowd, he saw nothing interesting until…look at her! Thick blond hair framed a beautiful face, a face very new to him. As their eyes met, Nikolas felt a jolt of electricity deep within his soul. What was it about this woman that stirred him in body as well as soul? He moved through the crowd, eyes never leaving hers. She held a bored yet amused expression on her face.

"You appear to hate these functions as much as I." Nikolas extended his hand to hers and brought it to his mouth, lips slightly caressing her hand before releasing it. With a smile borne of many years as a royal escort, he offered the woman a smile that hovered between bored and interested. "I am Nikolas Cassadine and you would be."

Jenna smiled in reply. "Jenna Jacks and it's a pleasure." She looked him over carefully, trying to weigh his strengths and weaknesses.

"Want to get out of here?" Nikolas asked with a smile that reminded Jenna so much of her father's for a moment.

"I'd like that." Jenna slipped her hand into the crook of his arm. In addition to being her assignment he was oh so approachable. 

~~*~~

Jerry slowly stepped under the yellow police tape and walked into the living room. Things would never be the same again. He dialed a familiar number and while he waited for an answer, he wiped his reddened eyes. His life was over and he knew it. He had no idea where to go from here and in reality, he didn't even know how to comprehend all of this. He was destined to lose everything he held dear.

"Hello." John Jacks said into the phone. He had a feeling of foreboding all day and somehow knew everything would change today.

"It's me. Everything is over Victor. You need to come down here immediately and set extra guards on Jax. Ashley's dead."

"Oh son." Victor let out a heartbroken sigh. "I'm so sorry it's come to this. After all these years…" He trailed off.

"I know you are. The sins of the fathers." Jerry sighed. "Just get here. I'll get Jenna."

~~*~~

Jenna wondered about the familiar feeling that she had around the prince. He was a complete stranger but one touch by him had her completely at ease. That was dangerous in her line of work. She needed to somehow find her edge again.

"Tell me Nikolas Cassadine what is it that you so besides romance hopeless debutantes that cannot resist that smile."

"Honestly I don't do that much. I'm in training of sorts." He blushed uncomfortably. Could he sound any more like the idle rich?

"Of sorts? What are you, an athlete?" Jenna asked, not wanting to sound too anxious.

"No not an athlete, a prince." He said modestly. "I'll reach my majority in two years and then I'll be head of my family empire."

"That sounds important." She said gently as she unobtrusively tapped her necklace. Hidden within was a minuscule recording device set in a diamond.

"It will be eventually. Right now it's nothing but a title hanging over my head. My Uncle Stefan watches the family holdings for me. He was supposed to be here tonight but a family emergency kept him in Port Charles." Nikolas realized that he was glad the family emergency had kept Stefan home, he realized as he eyed the beautiful blonde.

"Is that the New York Port Charles? What a coincidence that we've never run into one another there." She saw the confused look that marred his dark features. " My father and uncle are both there. I visited them many times, but if I had run into you, I probably would have gotten there more often." She said with a flirtatious smile. 

"Now I understand why you're so familiar to me." Nikolas had thought that she bore a striking resemblance to his mother, the twinkle in her eyes and the bone structure, but now he saw the similarities to the Jacks brothers in her smile and her proud stare. "Jax, he doesn't seem old enough to have a daughter as beautiful as you."

"I'll be sure to tell my father you thought that, although dad answers to Jerry and not Jax. He's always called me his princess but all fathers are a bit biased." She smiled, thinking of her adoring father and how surprised he'd be when she showed up in town. She hadn't been there yet, but it was convenient for her mark to believe that she had been.

"What do you do Jenna? You don't act like one of the normal attendants at a function like this. You're unlike the old crones searching for a rich husband who will take care of your every need because you were raised to believe that you couldn't do anything for yourself." Indeed she didn't. Nikolas knew that this woman could handle herself in a crowd.

Jenna's melodic laugh carried over the clear night air. "Hardly I can more than take care of myself." She said confidently, thinking of the revolver at her thigh.

"I believe that. You have an air about you. I've known very few women like that. My aunt is one, my mother another, though some people would laugh to hear me say that."

"Why would they laugh. She would have to be strong and confident to raise a prince, one who is modest and well spoken and not some royal snot. If I had a mother, I bet she would be like that. But it's always just been dad and I."

"I wasn't raised by my mother, although she has had a hand in humanizing me. I was raised by my father's family, by my uncle and grandmother more specifically. I met my mother at age 16, and she taught me that being a prince is secondary to love of family and friends. And at the time, no one but my mother and my father's family liked me." Nikolas had no idea why he was opening up so much to the woman but it felt right.

"I would have liked you, if I had known you back then that is. I know this is going to sound like a line, but there is something about you Nikolas, that makes me feel very at ease, as if I've known you my whole life." She knew that when her supervisors heard that, they were going to go nuts, thinking she had fallen for her assignment, but it was true. She only felt this safe and secure with her father and her uncle.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say that we know each other from somewhere, but I would remember a beautiful woman like you if I had come across her before now." He gave her a knowing smile, and was amazed when her cheeks tinged pink. No one he knew still blushed, or maybe he'd just gotten cynical about relationships after his ordeal with Katherine. "I know this is going to sound forward, but would you like to go back to my yacht with me? I've got it docked off of the pier. We could have a drink and talk about why we feel so comfortable with one another."

Jenna considered it, but knew that she couldn't place herself in that danger that way. Her handlers would have a field day after the fact, no matter how tempting the offer might be. And while it was occasionally fun to get them riled, she couldn't just throw everything that she'd learned away because the guy was cute. But she wasn't stupid; this was quite the opportunity. "I think that it would be easier to go to my room. I'm staying here, and it's not so far of a walk. You're not wearing high heels, and heels and piers just don't mix. I'd hate to sprain an ankle when the rest of the night has been so wonderful."

"If it's easier or you feel safer, I understand. I want you to be comfortable." That fact rang through his head; he was concerned that she was already thinking he was too forward for his other overtures. 

"You were right, saying I can take care of myself. If you made one move that I didn't like, you'd know it right away. It's just easiest you know." She also knew that if something did go wrong, she had plenty of back up in an adjoining room. 

"Lead the way then." Nikolas gallantly offered Jenna his arm. He was very ready for whatever the night was to give him. Placing his hand on the small of her back, he steadied her as she walked across the cobblestone path, her comment about high heels foremost in his mind. She shivered at his touch, and wondered where this night would lead. Jenna was aware that Nikolas wasn't the one directly under investigation, that he was a means to an end. However, her handlers, they still wouldn't like his growing friendship, for lack of a better term, between her and this devastatingly handsome prince.

The walk back into the hotel and the ride in the elevator were spent in companionable silence. Both thought it was strange that they felt completely at ease with the other but neither wanted to say anything and run the risk of ruining it. The elevator doors opened into her penthouse suite, and the silence which they had both been enjoying was immediately shattered. It sounded like every last electronic creation she had was going off at the same time. Her pager was going off, and the shrill beep was heard over both her cell phone and her safe phone beeping with her voice mail alert. The fax machine had a pile of paper on the floor beneath it, and her room line was ringing and blinking all at the same time. If only her WSB issued safe phone was ringing, that would have been one thing, but to have everything going off at the same time signaled a guaranteed emergency. 

"It seems like someone is trying to get a hold of you Jenna, do you know who it might be?" Nikolas asked, barely containing his laughter. He thought he was the only one to have good times interrupted consistently by family related chaos. 

"I'm not sure, but I intend to find out." Jenna picked up her safe phone, and looked at the number on it. It wasn't from headquarters or from Lucky, but her father's number was on the satellite phones digital number screen. She scrolled down through the previous five calls, and all had originated at her dad's penthouse. She had given him the number and warned him that unless it was something of dire circumstances, he wasn't ever to use it. In the three years she'd been an agent, he never had, so something was wrong. 

"Nikolas, it's my father; something is wrong, or else he wouldn't be trying to track me down like this. Do you mind if I give him a call really quickly?" She wasn't waiting for an answer, already dialing the number she knew by heart. Before she got the last number punched in, the room phone began squawking again. Jenna pounced on it, sending the expensive safe phone skittering across the floor. "Daddy, what's wrong," she knew it was him, it couldn't be anyone else. 

Jerry sighed with relief as he heard his daughter's voice. She sounded unhurt."Baby, I need you to home to Port Charles, I'm sending the plane after you, and you need to be at the airport in an hour." She took a deep breath hoping that the worst hadn't happened; that someone hadn't made the connection to her father and what she did for a living. Or that something had happened to her grandparents.

"It's not Lady Jane or gramps is it? You'd tell me if something had happened to either of them right? You wouldn't let me fly home alone not knowing if they were hurt or worse would you?" She was in a pure panic, a condition that was rare for her. 

"It's not either of your grandparents Jen. I won't discuss this on the phone, just be ready to go. It's important for your safety that for once you listen to me and do this without argument. For once in your life can you do it and not ask any questions I'm not ready to answer yet?" Jerry knew he was acting irrational with respect to his daughter, but her safety was more important then any hurt feelings he inflicted upon her.

Nikolas had approached Jenna and pulled her gently against his chest. Her upset was infectious and her distress was palpable. "Tell him that you've got a ride home, I can have my family plane gassed and ready to go by time we get to the airport," he whispered in her ear, not wanting to alert her father to his presence in her room. 

"Call the plane back dad, a friend offered the use of his family jet, which is here and will be ready by time we get to the airport. I'll be home right away daddy." She said, ready to hang up the phone and get on her way.

"Jen, who is your friend. I didn't realize you were taking a date on this trip of yours?" Jerry sighed, wondering if things could get any more complicated.

"I didn't dad, I met him here. Actually you might know him, he's a native of that city you live in. It's Nikolas Cassadine. We came up to have drinks after the event got boring. Don't worry, I'm in good hands daddy." She said, with a smile. "I'll be home soon, I'll meet you at your place, and I'll be very careful. I always am." She said hanging up the phone.

Jerry looked at his receiver in shock. He should have known that this would happen. He just could never have expected that it would happen on today of all days. It wasn't enough that his whole life was coming apart at the seams. The irony hit him and a wry chuckle escaped. Jerry Jacks had never deserve a break in that department, but the fact that his daughter was with a Cassadine was almost too much for him. "Be careful princess, and don't fall for the wrong boy. There are some that no money in the world can make all right."

~~*~~

Lucky Spencer walked out of the Port Charles airport and took a deep breath of air. Even though he was a few miles from water, his lungs burned slightly with the brine of the harbor. "Home." Lucky said with an ironic smile. He had only been home a handful of times in the three years he had been free. With a determined shake of his sandy brown hair, Lucky vowed not to think of the time he had been Helena and Faison's prisoner. "Eeny meenie miney moe." Lucky said, reciting one of Lulu's favorite rhymes. "Where do I go? Dads club or to the house to see mom and Lu?" He grinned suddenly as he hailed a taxi. "Port Charles watch out. Lucky Spencer is home for good."

   [1]: mailto:Angelab_me@yahoo.com



End file.
